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Power Point Software

Power Point Software is a powerful tool for making business presentations ...

Microsoft Power Point has changed the way nearly all businesses handle business presentations.  Gone are the days of presenters scrawling on whiteboards or hauling around giant folders full of posters; now nearly every speech or presentation is accompanied by a power point slideshow.  Unfortunately, many presenters who use power point either don't use it to their full advantage or, at worst, allow the power point software to overshadow their own presentation.  However, with a little practice it's easy to use power point software to your advantage, making your presentation informative without being showy or overbearing.

If you've played around with power point software for a little while you've probably noticed all of the flashy ways you can transition in between slides.  Flashes, bangs, fades, you can drop in your text from the top of the screen or make it skid in from the side.  It's easy to add sound effects too, or even animations to move in between slides.  Though some of these transitions can be impressive, most people make the mistake of using too many of them.  Though they may think it makes their presentation flashy, usually the whiz-bang transitions only serve to make presentations convoluted and obnoxious.  Don't be afraid to use a flashy transition to make a point, but usually a normal, unobtrusive transition between slides works the best.

Another mistake many power point software users make is that they write out their entire speech on the slides.  When put in front of a group, these presenters end up reading all of their slides word for word.  When this happens the slides in conjunction with the speech are redundant; the presenter would be better off either handing the audience a copy of the speech or doing away with the slides altogether.  When giving a power point presentation, it's important to remember that your audience can read!  Use short phrases on your slides to emphasize certain points of your speech or add additional information, but don't let your slides repeat your speech or vice-versa.

Power point software is especially good at displaying items that you can't get across verbally, including graphs and photographs.  Often the most impressive presentations save most of the text and language for the speech which is given and use the power point slides to display visual information.  Indeed, that's what it was there for in the first place.  If this technique is used, then the slides provide the audience with something to look at during the speech and they provide the audience with additional information, instead of distracting them or giving them information which is already being provided.

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